London was certainly an adventure and a lot was learned. It was a whirlwind 20 hours.

I spent a lot of time listening at eMetrics. There was a very large contingent of search and email marketers there – looking to see what this social media thing was all about. The panels on that topic were geared for that audience and it was particularly interesting to hear how others are explaining the opportunities in social media. I can’t/won’t share the details of private discussions that happened over the course of the day and next night.

I spent a lot time talking at eMetrics.

I went to London with Three Calls To Action of the Audience:

1. Join the WAA’s European Research Committee and be one of the first to know.
2. Advocate within your organization that Word Of Mouth / Social Media Marketing is very effective in customer acquisition and retention.
3. Start with Earned Media Value as the KPI to communicate the value that Social Media delivers.

If there’s another point to bring up – it’s this: many readers of this space are architects of KPI’s and models. Goal Alignment Strategy (GAS) and the underlining Goal Hierarchy (Goal Architecture) contain structure and incentives. Where there are incentives, there will be behavior. And so, as indirect architects of behavior – there’s a degree of strategic foresight that is required. A major concern about many operationalizations of Earned Media Value is that they are not architected to engender good behavior. I spent the bulk of the presentation explaining the underlining architecture of Earned Media Value – and why how you define Earned Media Value is a major reflection on what you value as a marketer and an analyst.

You can check out some of the photos here.

I stopped in at the Syncapse Office and rapidly realized why everybody can hear me when I use Skype to call in. (I’ll still keep on doing it. Seeing facial expressions while I’m meeting is still very dear to me.). They’re an excellent team.

Sadly, I cut the trip short and didn’t get to check in on Lepki or my other cohorts in London (Wiertz et al). Next time.

Finally, for those who are interested, I’ll be sharing some more personal reflections on product development, evidence based marketing, and a big decision over on my other blog at christopherberry.ca

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